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England (Counties as in 1851-1901) => England => Northumberland => Topic started by: Gen List Lass on Friday 08 June 12 15:51 BST (UK)
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Driving down the A1 the other weekend we tried to remember all our rivers in order from Berwick to Newcastle.
Must have been a "senior moment" day because we missed out one or two!
The Tweed - Berwick
The Aln - Alnmouth
The Coquet - Amble
The Lyne - Lynemouth
The Wansbeck - nothing!
The Blyth - Blyth
The Seaton Burn - Seaton Sluice - don't know whether this burn qualifies!
The Tyne - Tynemouth
Have I missed any out?
When I looked at the map, it struck me that the Wansbeck has no town at its mouth and I wondered why. Was there one in the past or was the land just unsuitable for building?
Gen in NBL England
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The Wansbeck comes out in Sandy Bay near to Newbiggin-by-the-Sea. The clue is in the name.....lots of sand, but there is a big caravan site at the estuary....
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Could have got most of them if I had put my mind to it, but I have to confess that it never really entered my head that Lynemouth was at the mouth of the Lyne :)
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Don't know if it counts as a "coastal town", but the remains of a fishing village can be found at the mouth of the Wansbeck, on the south side, along the road with the curious name "The Bucca".
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skida
I'm no expert on the place but I think that's a leftover from the area named "Boca Chica" after a South American battle/place..... There is quite a bit on the internet about it and how it got it's exotic name
Gen in NBL England
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I once had a boss, born in Nottinghamshire, who surprised me by reciting all the coastal rivers, not just of Northumberland, but of the whole of Great Britain. He said that he was taught them in primary school. ( My father was similarly able to quote the 50 counties of England in area size order) Examples of education by rote !
The Maw is a small burn that flows into the north sea at Cambois. This spot got the local name of Boca Chica
(Spanish for "little mouth")
Michael
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I was told that there are some earth works on the Wansbeck side of Cambois which are the remains of the original village - pre-dating Boca Chica and back before the name got 'frenchified'. It used to appear on maps as Kamus or Cammus.
I've never looked into this so can't give any detail.
Christine
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Some more here Gen ;)
http://www.northumberlandscapes.co.uk/galleries/index.php
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Thank you Seoras
That is what I was trying to find by googling, with no success. It's a great site with clickable links to smaller maps of each river plus lovely photos.
So if you fancy a virtual walk along one of our rivers, have a look.
I have bookmarked the map as it will be really useful.
Gen in NBL England
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I thought Boca Chica was closer to the River Blyth, but I can't remember where I read that (I'm a Wallsend Lad living in Blyth since 1999, so what would I know? :) )
I know there is/was a pub called the Buccaneer on The Bucca, but which was named first I can't say.
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I found the location of Boca Chica (North Blyth) in another thread on this forum:
http://communities.northumberland.gov.uk/006972FS.htm
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Yes, Boca Chica was definitely North Blyth. Just a short walk from where the ford was across the river where the High Ferry crossing was.
John Wallace explained how Boca Chica got it's name in 1745.
1745 About this time Boca Chica received its outlandish name. Two seamen belonging to the place had served on board a ship-of-war, under Admiral Vernon, at the siege of Carthagena, a sea port in South America, in 1741. The entrance into the harbour was termed Boca Chica (i.e. little mouth), and was defended by several forts, the whole of which were taken by the British forces. Those seamen having returned home in recounting their exploits at the siege so frequently used the words Boca Chica, that one of their companions jocularly gave the name to the place of their residence; the new name took with the public, who at once adopted it, and to this day Boca Chica has continued to be the name of the northern portion of the High Pans. (Wallace)
[Boca Chica existed as a local place name for more than 200 years, right up to the housing clearance of North Blyth circa 1960, it also featured on maps of the area].
When the colliery rows were built in Victorian times one of the rows was called Boca Chica. No doubt the original row was demolished to make way for the new terraces.
The name Boca Chica lives on! A brand new house that is in the process of being built at Cambois, is named Boca Chica.
Philip
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An aerial photo of Boca Chica and the Upper Basin post 1934.
P
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My mam and grandparents lived in Boca Chico in 1940s!
Barbara
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Thanks for the map of the area, but the aerial photo is absolutely brilliant.
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Lovely set of images, maps and information. My father was born in 24 Boca Chica but moved away at the age of 2 so had no memories of the place at that time. He returned for annual holidays for some time and would have been able to give some later memories of the place were he still with us. It is wonderful for me to see the place where he was born and lived the early part of his life.
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Boca Chica was definitely classed as Cambois, not North Blyth, and up to the time when the railway sheds and railway houses were built the area now know as North Blyth was simply the southern end of Cambois. With the new railway sheds being given the name of North Blyth Sheds in 1890 odd, the name stuck and was permanently applied to that southern part of the links
I was born in North Blyth in 1958 at 11, Gray Street and lived there until 1982. My dad was a fireman then a driver on the railway there and was also born in North Blyth at 15, Dale Street. Both my mam and my dad lived in North Blyth all of their lives.
So anywhere north of an east to west line from the south side of the Ridley Arms Hotel (The Willick to locals) over to to the North Blyth signal box and across the beach was always classed as Cambois by us locals. The wooden railway footbridge over the railway lines immediately to the north of the North Blyth signal box was always known as Cambois Bridge, and next to Cambois Bridge on the west side was what was called the Cambois school house, which originally was the local schoolmasters house.
Many of my school friends lived in Boca Chica, Boathouse Terrace, Bridge Street etc and I can 100% guarantee that they classed themselves as Cambois folk. After all they lived in houses built for the workers of Cambois Colliery.
Even though we were called North Blythers we were very very close to our Cambois mates and there was never any rivalry between Cambois and North Blyth (nor East Sleekburn which we also very much classed as being as one with us) because as far as we were concerned we were all from the same little area and we stuck together at all times, played with each other, went to school together, grew up together, so all one big happy family on our stretch of land hemmed in between the Blyth and the Wansbeck and the Sleekburn.
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What about the river Coquet?
Acc. to Wiki, its source is in the Cheviots, reaches the sea at Warkworth.
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The Coquet runs into the north sea at Amble, just to the east of Warkworth and about 20kms north of the Wansbeck, and is the next main river north of the Wansbeck at Cambois. Just offshore from the river mouth is the lovely Coquet Island which is a nature reserve.
Yes the Coquet does have its source/sources in the Cheviot Hills from where in wends its way eastwards through Rothbury, Warkworth and Amble and eventually into the North Sea. Warkworth Castle is beautifully situated on high ground in a loop of the River Coquet which afforded it natural protection around 3/4 of its perimeter.
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Hello I was born in Cambois in late 1940s.
there's always the mystery of Boca Chica (Little Mouth) - a term used for estuaries across the colonial world, named by their eurocentric "discoverers".
That said, I've often pondered as to its original location and meaning in the history of Cambois.
I was doing some mines/coalfield research and came across this map, published 1864. this is about four? years before the cambois coal mine was sunk, and colliery cottages - a whole village - was built and populated. It seems that Boca Chica was a "building" maybe approximately where the Ridley Arms was finally built? which was always called the Willick (=whelk), rather than the ridleyarms, which was a mouthful by comparison. and maybe out of negative deference to Lord Ridley, who owned the new mine and village.
https://mininginstitute.org.uk/education/archive-teaching-unit/a-general-maps-of-the-coalfield/bells-plans-of-the-northumberland-and-durham-coalfield/bell-blyth-and-warkworth/
we also see that Cambois was originally the small group of building (?Browns' Farm) adjacent to the mouth of the Wansbeck.
by mid 1900s, the village contained several thousand souls.